Guide for the evaluation of programmes and projects with a gender, human rights and intercultural perspective

This Guide has been elaborated with the
intent of integrating these approaches
into the UN Women evaluation cycle. It is
a practical tool for those who undertake,
manage and/or use evaluations. It was
prepared by Inclusión y Equidad consultants
Alejandra Faúndez and Marisa
Weinstein, and it is aimed at professionals
who implement or manage programmes
and projects, especially those in which
human rights, gender equality and interculturality
are mainstreamed.

It is advisable for all interventions intended
to improve the living conditions of
a population to include an integrated approach
(human rights/gender equality/interculturality).
Generally, the tendency to
elude the incorporation of this approach
is either related to the idea that it would
imply an additional workload for teams,
or to not knowing how to apply it and
what aspects should be observed when
doing so. Otherwise, when an integrated
approach is not used, the programmes/projects can result, at the very least, in the
following situations:

A high degree of subjectivity and error
with respect to the meaning attributed
to the observable differences among
the people affected by the project,
whether at the moment of diagnosis,
during the project’s implementation or
in the evaluation process.

Its effects may be attributed to expressions
characteristic of the differences
between the sexes, or the cultural
traits of the populations, instead of to
the structural causes that threaten the
exercise of human rights in a broader
sense.

Situations of social conflictiveness may
increase when differentiated actors,
their interests and their capacity to
participate are not recognized.